The allowable harvest is 2.1 million pounds for Kodiak, up from 1.7 million pounds a year ago. There were 72 vessels registered for the fishery, compared with 87 vessels in 2005, said Wayne Donaldson, regional shellfish and groundfish biologist in Kodiak.

"We've had a couple of years of better survival of eggs and seeing them come through the legal size population now," Donaldson said.

Chignik and the south peninsula did not fare as well. Biologists lowered the allowable harvest from 400,000 pounds to 200,000 pounds in Chignik, and from 300,000 pounds to 290,000 pounds for the south peninsula, based on preseason surveys that showed stocks were down. Opened only for the second time since 1988, the Chignik fishery, in particular, will be closely monitored and could close on short notice, officials said.

Eisuke Yazawa, sales manager in Seattle for Japanese-owned North Pacific Seafoods, parent company of Alaska Pacific Seafoods in Kodiak, said Jan. 16 that while the bairdi quota in Alaska is very limited, there is an abundance of opilio, or snow crab on the market, including unsold harvests from 2004 and 2005. Yazawa also said Japanese buyers preferred the larger bairdi, and that smaller ones would be earmarked for domestic markets.

While the season for bairdi crab in Kodiak, Chignik and the South Alaska Peninsula opened Jan. 17, prices were uncertain because they depend on prices set in Dutch Harbor, Yazawa said.

Dave Woodruff, of Alaska Fresh Seafoods in Kodiak, predicted prices on all shellfish stocks would be depressed this year, due to unsold previous harvests and competition from fisheries in Chile, Norway and Russia.

For the 2005 season, processors paid $2.9 million to Kodiak fishermen, and about $400,000 to $500,000 at the docks to bairdi fishermen in Chignik and the South Alaska Peninsula, said Wayne Donaldson, the state's regional shellfish and groundfish biologist in Kodiak.

Prices a year ago got up to $1.85 a pound, with crab weighing 2 to 2.5 pounds garnering a higher price. Overall prices, however, were all over the board, depending on the market, biologists and processors said. "This year I am hearing prices as low at $1.38 a pound to $1.50 across the board," Woodruff said.

The bairdi season was delayed for several days by stormy weather, officially opening Jan. 17. The fishery must end by March 31. Most sections of the fishery were expected to complete their harvests within one week to one month, biologists said.